1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to finite element models for crash test dummies and, more particularly, to a method of material modeling for crash test dummy finite element models.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automotive, aviation, and other vehicle manufacturers conduct a wide variety of collision testing to measure the effects of a collision on a vehicle and its occupants. Through collision testing, a vehicle manufacturer gains valuable information that can be used to improve the vehicle.
Collision testing often involves the use of anthropomorphic mannequins, better known as “crash test dummies.” During collision testing, an operator places a crash test dummy inside a vehicle, and the vehicle undergoes a simulated collision. The collision exposes the crash test dummy to high inertial loading, and sensors inside the crash test dummy, such as accelerometers, pressure gauges, and the like, generate electrical signals of data corresponding to the loading. Cables transmit these electrical signals of data to a data acquisition system (DAS) for subsequent processing. This data reveals information about the effects of the collision on the crash test dummy and can be correlated to the effects a similar collision would have on a human occupant.
In any commercially available crash simulation softwares such as LS-DYNA, PAM-CRASH, and ABAQUS, users cannot handle J (relative volume). In these softwares, to make the material stiff or soft, the user scales up or down the stress-strain test curve, which disturbs the original test curve and is not efficient. In addition, the maximum number of parameters from these softwares is 3 or 4, which results in poor curve fitting because these softwares do not use Genetic Algorithm.